The problem with the right

I am generally a left-leaning libertarian. I grew up in a home that held to traditional conservative values and reliably voted for Republicans. My first presidential election was in 1984 and I was proud to vote for Ronald Reagan. I value both personal and economic freedom, but I do place a somewhat higher value on the personal liberties. Your mileage may vary.

From my center-ish position I can see the wing nuts on both ends for what they are - which is nutty. But what is disturbing to me is the change that has come over the Republican party since the end of the Reagan/Bush era. Until the election of Clinton, both parties held to the idea of loyal opposition. They could argue at length about why the other side was wrong - or just wrong headed - on a particular issue, but in the end everyone agreed that we were all Americans and that the other side of the aisle was trying to do what they thought best for America.

No more.

Starting with Clinton in 1992, the right has moved ever farther away from the center. The left has as well, but not as far or as fast. It has reached the point where the Republicans no longer see the Democrats as the loyal opposition, but rather as an enemy to be destroyed. The right sees a binary world where "If you are not with us, you are against us." Questioning or opposing the policies of the Bush team is challenged as unpatriotic and unAmerican. Best selling books are published that openly accuse liberals of treason and godlessness.

Sure, there are nutcases on the left as well - just read moveon.org for a sampling. Al Franken publishes books that accuse all rightwingers of being liars.

The difference being that the moveon.org types and Al Franken disciples are seen as being wingnuts by the mainstream Democrats. Ann Coulter/Sean Hannity/Rush Limbaugh type extremists ARE the mainstream of the Republican party.

Have there been any books published by mainstream Democrats that accuse ALL Republicans of treason? There simply is no left-wing counterpart to Ann Coulter. And she is right in the middle of mainstream Republicanism.

I am more comfortable with a unified Democratic government than with the unified Republican government we had under Bush because I just don't see that government treating everyone on the other side of the aisle as a traitor.

Folks, we are all Americans. If your preferred party is not in power, you are still American and you still have a responsibility to be loyal to America - even if you oppose the current president. You can see the difference: during an international crisis after 9/11, Democrats overwhelmingly supported President Bush. But during an international crisis in Yugoslavia where American troops were in harm's way, Republicans overwhelmingly opposed and vilified President Clinton.

It is to easy to live in a media echo chamber where you read Drudge, listen to Limbaugh, and watch FoxNews and never see anything to suggest that maybe Democrats don't have horns.

It's not quite so easy for Democrats - the news media is not nearly so leftwing as Fox would have you believe. But I guess a motivated Liberal could read only the editorial pages of the New York Times, read moveon.org and listen to Air America (are they still on the air?) and avoid all other sources of information.

I don't know how to fix it. I suspect that it can't be "fixed" at all. It may well be time for one of the major parties to split and the other to dissolve into it. Possibly the Democrats break into the moderate/conservative Clinton branch and the left/liberal Pelosi branch. The GOP might dissolve mostly into the Clinton branch and leave the remnants to have a far-right minor party to counterbalance the far-left Pelosi party.

Whatever the case, you can be sure that History is not over yet.

Current Tunes: "Inhuman Rampage" by Dragonforce
Last book finished: "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail" by Jared Diamond